When Bobby's car breaks down in the desert while on the run from some of the bookies who have already taken two of his fingers, he becomes trapped in the nearby small town where the people are stranger than anyone he's encountered. After becoming involved with a young married woman, her husband hires Bobby to kill her. Later, she hires Bobby to kill the husband.

U Turn is a 1997 crime film directed by Oliver Stone, based on the book Stray Dogs by John Ridley. It stars Sean Penn, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Powers Boothe, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Nick Nolte.

U Turn was filmed in 1996 on location in Superior, Arizona and other areas of Arizona and California.

Oliver Stone is best known for his long winded conspiracy films JFK, Nixon but his remarkable back catalogue contains others gems such as Wall Street, The Doors and Platoon. With U Turn, Stone delves into the dark world of noir with interesting results.

Bobby Cooper ,Sean Penn, is heading for Vegas to pay off a gambling debt when his car breaks down in the small town of Superior. After leaving his car with the local mechanic, he meets up with the sultry Grace ,Jennifer Lopez, and her husband Jake ,Nick Nolte. Things start to go a little crazy when Jake suggests Bobby murders Grace for a share of the insurance money. Bobby refuses, but then he loses the cash he needs to pay off his debts in a robbery. As events spiral out of control, Bobby meets ever more eccentric characters. All he really wants to do is leave town alive.

U Turn neatly takes the familiar noir narrative and relocates it squarely in Oliver Stone visuals country. More than a little reminiscent of John Dahl's Red Rock West ,another good example of nineties noir, the film plays like a glorious pantomime with a host of famous faces tackling the various parts with gusto. What makes U Turn special is its humor. It's as if Stone got tired of the serious, mystical stuff and instead came up with a deliriously, deliciously, overblown farce. Mind you, there's still an out of place philosophiser at Superior in the form of Jon Voight's blind man but here it just adds to the surreal nature of the plot.

Resembling the mutant offspring of Natural Born Killers mated with Doc Hollywood, U Turn is that rarest of beasts, a genuinely enjoyable film.